Corsair Gaming K70 RGB Mechanical Keyboard Review
by E. Fylladitakis on September 22, 2014 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Keyboard
- Peripherals
- Corsair
- mechanical
- RGB Backlighting
Introduction
It has been twenty years since Corsair's first retail products hit the shelves and the company has undoubtedly come a very long way since then. What started as a small memory manufacturer is now a major global supplier of advanced computer components and peripherals. Today is the dawn of a new era for Corsair, as the company announced the establishment of their own gaming brand. The new division has been christened "Corsair Gaming", and with the name comes a new department and logo. The focus will be on the development of high performance gaming peripherals.
Alongside the announcement of their new department, Corsair is also releasing several new products, with the much-anticipated RGB keyboards being among them. The company dropped the "Vengeance" series name and the new keyboards are just called by the brand name and model. That means we're now looking at the Corsair Gaming K70 RGB (and not the keyboard formerly known as Vengeance K70 RGB or some variation on that theme).
This keyboard has probably had more hype between its announcement and release date than any other keyboard in the history of humankind. Ever since the first demos of the keyboard found their way into pictures and videos back in January, there have been myriad rumors about the capabilities of the keyboard and the new Corsair Utility Engine (CUE) software. Some people even suggested that this is "just a Vengeance K70 with RGB LEDs", which could not be further from the truth. The truth is that the new Corsair Gaming K70 RGB introduces many new functions and far greater customizability than any previous Corsair mechanical keyboard.
Today we finally have a chance to go hands-on with the shipping hardware. Join us as we examine the keyboard, its capabilities, and the new CUE software.
Packaging & Bundle
We received the Corsair Gaming K70 RGB in a well-designed, attractive cardboard box, capable of providing more than enough protection during shipping. Inside the box is a minimalist bundle of just a few leaflets and a full size wrist rest. The wrist rest has a corona-treated surface that gives it a soft, comfortable rubber-like feeling. Corsair apparently ditched the extra set of contoured, textured "gaming" keycaps that we saw supplied with the Vengeance K70 and the Vengeance K60. As we mentioned in several previous articles, very few (if any) gamers would actually swap keycaps before gaming so Corsair understandably realized that this was little more than an unnecessary extra cost.
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YazX_ - Monday, September 22, 2014 - link
Thanks for this excellent review.LogitechFan - Monday, September 22, 2014 - link
And I though the Logitech's G logo was awful when they first released it. So now we have the new gaming sub-brand for Corsair, which is:1. Has a tramp stamp for a logo (no, no need to argue, it's a tramp stamp, in tribal styling, end of discussion).
2. Has cornered itself into a yellow/black color combination with their headset (I prefer to have all my gaming gear to be the same brand), so even though I can change RGB colors on mice and keyboards, headsets are fixed. I guess corsair did mot learn from MSI's mistakes...
Impulses - Monday, September 22, 2014 - link
Who cares about headsets? Real headphones + Vmoda BoomPro / Antlion ModMic / Zalman clip on is where it's at. Companies that have been making headphones for decades or are dedicated exclusively to it tend to build much better sounding crap for the money, go figure.Not that I'm diminishing your argument for color coordination... I'm totally that vain too, but I ended up with all blue mostly out of laziness, so easy to find blue RAM, blue backlit anything, etc.
LogitechFan - Tuesday, September 23, 2014 - link
Most people on a budget that play FPS games are fine with a 7.1 software headset. I used to own an expensive set of equipment, but this day an age software based 7.1 is all you need, minus drivers issues. Regardless, the color and the logo beg the question if corsair's marketing is actually sober enough to function properly on day-to-day basis.PS. I prefer blue and black myself. Red is overdone, and since corsair is competing with blue (logitech 2.0, roccat, madcatz and saitek, whatever is left of it), and red/orange (asus, CM, TT, cougar etc), as well as razer's god-knowns-what-kind-of-color, the only untouched territory is yellow/black. MSI did it once and was quick to add the red-gaming series the next year. It seems corsair design team are no student of their mistakes.
RoninX - Monday, September 22, 2014 - link
It would be interesting to see a head-to-head comparison of the K70/K95 to Razer's Black Widow Ultimate keyboard.faster - Tuesday, September 23, 2014 - link
I think you should throw in some real world testing.I had a K90 and I accidently dumped a pint of beer into it. It never worked again. I have had other keyboards that survived the "beverage test". If I knew the K90 was so susceptible to liquid I would not have bought it. This keyboard is similar in appearance and costs even more. It would break my heart if I accidently spilled some water or coffee onto my $170 keyboard and it bricked it.
My K90 was heavy, it felt like I could bash a watermelon with it. In reality it was fairly fragile in its susceptibility to liquid.. For that much cost, it should be able to withstand a little wear and tear. Do you still have your test unit? Spill some coffee into it and tell me what happens :-P
localhostrulez - Saturday, September 27, 2014 - link
I dumped some water on my Corsair K70 by accident, and although it did initially input weird strings like "01234567890." when I pressed certain keys (around the water), allowing the water to dry out and dry helped. I have the black version, and that happened to be a nice, hot day. The keyboard worked fine after that.Beagus - Tuesday, September 23, 2014 - link
Very good review!Now I just need an excuse to "upgrade" my V K70 to this K70 RGB.
bryanb - Tuesday, September 23, 2014 - link
My Vengeance 70 keyboard currently has 28 failed LEDs. I should probably look into some type of RMA, but have recently amused myself by playing the "What key is burned out today" game. With an average of 1-2 failed LEDs per week, there's potential to find another every time I look at the keyboard!Interestingly, all of the LEDs on my older Vengeance 90 are working fine.
peterfares - Wednesday, September 24, 2014 - link
Do the LEDs burn out after a couple months? My Corsair K95 has 4 dead LEDs and 3 dim and about to die LEDs after owning it for just 4 months. My old Logitech keyboards never lost lighting but my old G15 after 5 years started flickering a little. 5 years is a lot longer than 4 months and an acceptable lifetime for a keyboard.